Israeli Reporter Goes Undercover as Priest – and Gets Spat at - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-26/ty-article/.premium/israeli-reporter-goes-undercover-as-priest-and-gets-spat-at/00000188-f775-d6ce-abb9-f77780680000
An Israeli journalist was derided and spat at, including by a child and a soldier, as he spent a day dressed as a priest in Jerusalem to investigate spiraling hate crimes against Christians in the city.
Israel Poisoned Palestinian Land to Build West Bank Settlement in 1970s, Documents Reveal - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-23/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israel-poisoned-palestinian-land-to-build-west-bank-settlement-in-1970s-documents-reveal/00000188-e8aa-df52-a79d-fcabdd200000
A new, publicly accessible archival project shows the inner workings of the Israeli government and military during the early years of the settlement enterprise
L’article complet ici:
Israel Poisoned Palestinian Land to Build West Bank Settlement in 1970s, Documents Reveal - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://archive.is/2023.06.24-103617/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-23/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israel-poisoned-palestinian-land-to-build-west-bank-settlement-in-1970s-documents-reveal/00000188-e8aa-df52-a79d-fcabdd200000
’Run to the Hilltops’: Ben-Gvir Calls on Settlers to Establish More Illegal Outposts - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-23/ty-article/.premium/israeli-settlers-establish-several-west-bank-outposts-with-officials-knowledge/00000188-e79c-df52-a79d-ffbf94910000
Several unauthorized West Bank outposts have been established in the past few days, with National Security Minister Ben-Gvir calling for even more as government officials ask security forces to look the other way
With Two Decades of Experience, This Israeli Iran Expert Finally Breaks His Silence - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-16/ty-article/.highlight/with-two-decades-of-experience-this-israeli-iran-expert-finally-breaks-his-silence/00000188-c09d-d2e6-a9ab-e59d00770000
Haaretz.com sur Twitter
▻https://twitter.com/haaretzcom/status/1670548189181616131
“The advantage is that Iran is not North Korea. The leader consults, is aware of feelings among the people, of reactions in the international community. One can work in the face of that”
Les milieux autorisés n’ont rien vu, rien entendu.
With Two Decades of Experience, This Israeli Iran Expert Finally Breaks His Silence - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://archive.is/2023.06.17-212309/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-16/ty-article/.premium/with-two-decades-of-experience-this-israeli-iran-expert-finally-breaks-his-silence/00000188-c09d-d2e6-a9ab-e59d00770000
As the titanic battle over the members of the Judicial Appointments Committee raged this week in the Knesset – effectively the decisive stage in the war defending Israeli democracy – intense talks continued over the fate of the Iranian nuclear project. According to Israeli intelligence, the United States and Iran are close to formulating new understandings after five years of almost total disconnect.
According to the understandings, Iran will freeze its high-level enrichment of uranium, just before a breakthrough that will give it sufficient fissile material to manufacture one nuclear bomb (and within half a year, seven bombs). In exchange, the United States will free up Iranian assets frozen in foreign banks to the tune of about $20 billion.
Israel is watching the developments from the side, almost unable to exert influence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did voice a short objection this week to the compromise that’s shaping up; but in practice, despite the bombastic declarations heard frequently from Israel, new understandings will reduce the likelihood that the Israeli threat to mount an independent attack on the nuclear sites will be actualized.
A uranium enrichment facility at Natanz in 2019.Credit: HO / Atomic Energy Organization
Besides, many of the experts in the security establishment support the new understandings and view them as the least of the evils. Some of the leading figures in the professional cadre, including former director of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Tamir Hayman and his successor, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, were also against the Israeli move in 2018 that pushed U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw from the nuclear agreement that had been signed three years earlier.
Israeli officials believe U.S. will avoid calling new Iran understandings an ‘agreement’
Why Israel’s intel on Iran changed so drastically
Brig. Gen. Oren Setter closely followed the twists and turns of the Iranian affair for almost two decades. Setter, who last month completed three years as head of the Strategic Division in the Israel Defense Forces’ General Staff and almost 30 years of service in the IDF, held key positions in the Strategy Directorate, Military Intelligence, the Directorate of Defense Research and Development and other intelligence bodies. He is a graduate of the army’s Talpiot Program, holds a PhD in operations research and was awarded the Israel Security Prize.
He wrote his doctoral dissertation at Tel Aviv University but also spent time at Harvard, where he researched the nuclear issue. Almost all his service was performed in the shadows. His interview this week with Haaretz is the second interview he’s ever given to the media, and the first in which his full name is given and his photograph published.
Existential threat
Like his colleagues in the intelligence community, Setter is well aware of the progress between Washington and Tehran, but recommends it be viewed in proportion. “What needs to be understood is that the contacts that are currently being talked about are a tactical matter,” he says. “Neither side is ripe for something bigger, in any direction. As things look, Iran is recoiling from crossing the threshold and progressing to producing uranium at the level of military enrichment, 90 percent. And the United States, for its part, does not want to use military force and is not ripe to enter negotiations on a new agreement.
“There is a kind of physics of negotiations underway here,” Setter continues. “It requires the articulation of a conception and afterward a negotiating process that could last two years or so. The present administration doesn’t have that time at the moment, ahead of the presidential election in November 2024. Working out understandings will also improve the communications channel between the sides. That’s needed in case of a future miscalculation between them.
“Overall,” he adds, “the question now is how to gain time, stabilize the highly sensitive situation that prevails and bring about optimal conditions ahead of a future discussion on a better solution. To examine how to minimize the danger of crossing the threshold and, contrariwise, preserve levers for negotiations down the line. It’s a narrow path to navigate. The Americans tend to aspire to achieve slightly more agreements at the price of slightly less pressure. Israel relies more on deterrence.”
According to Setter, “Most of the countries that have gone nuclear worked in parallel to obtain fissile material and develop a weapon system. The Iranians are an anomaly. In 2003, they froze the weapons program over the American invasion of Iraq. Since then they have been moving ahead mainly on the uranium enrichment track. The best image I’ve been able to come up with is this: Imagine a climbing expedition on Everest. Ninety percent of the effort is invested in reaching the summit. But then you need to go back down. That takes time, there’s more work, but in the big picture you will reach the destination. There is no substantive question there.”
“We no longer have a safety distance of a year from breakthrough to going nuclear,” he says, such as existed after the signing of the agreement.
“Iran is two weeks from breakthrough, one step away from arriving at 90 percent enriched uranium, a sufficient amount for a bomb. But confusion exists between conquering the summit and completing the journey. In order to descend from the mountain properly – in other words, to transform the bomb into a weapon and complete its adaptation to a nuclear warhead for a missile – about two more years are needed.”
The U.S. chief of staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said recently that the Iranians might opt for an abbreviated track to develop a weapon, such as manufacturing a “dirty bomb.” Setter doesn’t see that as highly-probable. “Milley hinted that it’s possible to do it a lot less orderly and less safely. From our experience with Iran, they mostly do things the way they should be done. I’m not sure that they will be in a terrible hurry to complete the development of a weapon.”
Preventing weapon development is far more complicated, he says. “The part that’s easier to supervise, through the International Atomic Energy Commission, is the fissile material. That’s measurable and it’s the heart of the agreement. There is no orderly supervisory mechanism over the development of a weapon. The facilities are smaller and it’s easy to conceal them. In enrichment, Iran progressed by degrees. In recent years – more centrifuges, faster and more advanced accumulation of uranium enriched to 20 percent and then to 60 percent.
“The fact that they didn’t take the final step – enrichment to 90 percent – wasn’t due to lack of ability. Refraining from that is a strong indication that they understand that this is a serious crossing of a threshold, which will exact steep prices. It will be a step everyone will assert unequivocally: We are moving to weapons development. The response – global, economic and perhaps also military – will be different. On the other hand, they are using this as an effective threat. It’s not by chance that the international community is recoiling from intensifying the sanctions, or that the IAEA is not referring the discussion of their violations, the so-called ‘open files,’ to the UN Security Council. It’s a mutual deterrent balance.”
In the short term, Setter avers, the world “will have to clarify what the most effective way is to deter Iran from a breakthrough. In the long term, the question is how to keep them significantly distant from the summit. Our situation analysis is very close to that of the United States and European countries. The disparity in approaches lies not in the analysis but on the question of how to distance them from the goal.”
Perhaps, Setter says, there is something to the American way of thinking, expressed by President Theodore Roosevelt when he spoke of the need to walk softly and carry a big stick. “Part of formulating the strategy is understanding the motives of the other sides. On the Iranian side, there is a deep feeling that when the Americans withdrew from the agreement, they were tricked. The previous agreement did not protect them at all from an American withdrawal. There is a deep Iranian feeling that that wasn’t fair. From their point of view, they fulfilled the terms of the agreement and were shafted. Their dignity was affronted and therefore they will cope with tremendous economic difficulties and will not give in. That’s why the pressure on them didn’t work.
“In the past few years we’ve categorized the Iranian moves in the nuclear project as consolidation in the threshold region, which is below going nuclear. They not only stepped up enrichment, they scattered the centrifuges in better-protected sites. The goal is to create a more robust and immune infrastructure,” Setter says. Drawing closer to Russia also serves the Iranians, he notes. They may have received advanced air-defense systems in return for the drones they supplied to the Russians.
“They are taking steps that are intended to create a feeling that there is no point in attacking the nuclear sites, in part because they shortened the duration of subsequent rehabilitation even after aerial bombing.”
Still, in the past two years Israel renewed its military preparations for an attack in Iran, and is making sure to publicize them at every opportunity. Setter reiterates the accepted view in the army that maintaining a credible military threat could in itself act as an incentive for Iran to enter into serious negotiations after the U.S. election. “It needs to be clear to them that Israeli intelligence is following from close-up and that military capabilities to attack Iran exist.”
Do you think a military attack is a ‘type of solution?’
“Yes. You put it well: ‘A type of solution’ – certainly not in the Syrian and Iraqi sense of total annihilation, when a lone Israeli attack destroyed a lone reactor, which was built using a plan from abroad. The Iranian program includes more facilities and is based on local capabilities. Physically, they will be able to rehabilitate from everything. But the price of an intensive military confrontation is very steep, and they know that we can act again.”
What is the degree of Israeli influence on the U.S. position on Iran?
“My angle is a partial one. There are smaller forums in which I did not take part. But my feeling, over the years, was that they were listening to us. They have an appreciation of our professional understanding, along with the knowledge that sometimes we do things that they are less pleased with. There is a great deal of openness to listen, coupled with skepticism. The record of Israeli recommendations is mixed, including the recommendation to withdraw from the agreement. A few times the Americans felt that we had not evaluated Iran’s response correctly, and the U.S.’s situation did not improve in the wake of such recommendations.”
The Strategic Division in the General Staff, established by former Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, where Setter operated, devoted part of its activity to formulating recommendations for long-term Israeli strategy against Iran. In Iran, Setter says, there is “very deep enmity toward Israel. Even a certain dimension of antisemitism. It combines nationalist and religious layers and a Shiite perception of defending the downtrodden, together with Iranian recoil from the West. And there are many historical accounts, from the 1970s down to today.
Open gallery view
“Their approach,” he continues, “is also manifested in regional activity and in the upgrading of their missile system. There is high scientific-technological capability, along with a dramatic development in conventional abilities – missiles, cruise missiles and drones. The supply of Iranian drones to Russia would have sounded fantastical to us 20 years ago. They have very advanced drone capabilities, from their own development and also from copying. These things interconnect: the missiles allow them better protection for the nuclear project, alongside an offensive threat against us via proxy forces, terrorism and cyber.
“In recent months there has been an Iranian attempt to undermine the regional alliance against them. They are working for rapprochement with the Sunni Arab countries and to reduce hostility toward them, partly in response to the Abraham Accords. Not one country in the region changed its basic opinion on Iran. The Sunni-Shiite rift exists. But the war in Yemen exacted a steep price from the Gulf states, and they are trying to abate tensions. Everyone is talking with everyone. There are a lot more hues in the Middle East now. Contrariwise, the Iranian threat to us has become broader, multidimensional. If the regime there does not fall, they will be our enemies for the coming decades.”
Is there a future existential threat to Israel here?
“I see a threat of that sort in them, because Israel’s existence very much occupies the regime, and not in a positive sense. They are not a crazy state, nor are they a completely rational state. Most of the time the decision-making process was very orderly, after many deliberations and cost-benefit analyses. The advantage is that Iran is not North Korea. The leader consults, is aware of feelings among the people, of reactions in the international community. One can work in the face of that. But you have to step into their shoes, to understand how they see the world.”
Setter occasionally irked his superiors over the last few years, by insisting on presenting independent professional positions and forecasts. But now, when he’s asked whether the renewed negotiations between the United States and Iran spell the final collapse of the Israeli position that the nuclear agreement must be abandoned, he replies cautiously, as one who has yet to completely doff his uniform.
The bottom line, Setter says, “We are not at a good point today. Looking back on 2018, not everything is black and white. Underlying the American decision to withdraw [from the agreement] was a desire to bring massive pressure on Iran so that it would be possible to limit its nuclear project more significantly than in the 2015 agreement, which did indeed have flaws, such as the absence of an inbuilt clause for extending the agreement beyond 2031. At that stage, according to the agreement, Iran receives legitimization for the project with very few restrictions. That is a fundamental flaw.
“But the rest of the world wasn’t with us and with Trump, when the president decided to withdraw from the agreement. As such, we lost a cardinal element – international unity against Iran – which was a significant achievement in 2015. Russia and China supported the agreement, and Iran became more flexible. After 2018, when the Americans went back to putting economic pressure on Iran, I thought that was more likely to bring about stubbornness than concessions. On the other hand, I was wrong enough times in my evaluations to know that the second scenario was also possible.”
Over the past three years, in response to Iran’s violations of the agreement (which from Tehran’s point of view were a response to the U.S. withdrawal), a series of sabotage acts against Iranian nuclear sites have been attributed to Israel. The Americans claimed – and this also resonated in IDF Military Intelligence – that this approach was actually spurring the Iranians to accelerate their nuclear program. Here, too, Setter says, somewhat diplomatically, that “Iran exploited some of the attacks on its soil to advance the program. The heart of the matter is that they did so without paying the full price vis-à-vis the international community. The world developed an understanding towards Iran, and they exploited this in a very sophisticated way.”
“From my angle, as a professional, things were always presented in full to the decision-makers. In 2015, I presented the nuclear agreement to the security cabinet for almost two hours. From my experience, all told, the discussion was very substantive. I completely accept that the political decision-makers sometimes have information that we don’t, for example during the Abraham Accords negotiations, we didn’t understand the full picture. There is also a political understanding of how the public sees things.
“As a young officer in the Directorate of Defense Research and Development, I engaged in operations research on the different systems for intercepting rockets. At the time, there was a conception in the army that there was no need to invest in those systems: people would go down to the bomb shelters in any case. The rockets weren’t accurate and were barely lethal. It would be better to invest in offense. I remember how the defense minister at the time, Amir Peretz, said that the public needs something between itself and the threat. You don’t need something hermetic, but feeling like ducks in a shooting gallery was intolerable. Peretz was right. In the end, Iron Dome is a phenomenal success.”
Setter does not accept the analysis that has been voiced frequently in Israel over the past few months, to the effect that we are now witnessing a process in which the United States is pulling out of the Middle East. “There is no such event,” he says. “In the American order of priorities, Russia is now an acute threat to security, and China is a threatening long-term competitor. If I were in their shoes, those would be my priorities, too. They are not on the way out. They understand that if they leave the region to its own devices, that will bounce back to affect them. I told them more than once: ‘The Middle East is the opposite of Las Vegas – what happens here doesn’t stay here.’
“They need to preserve capabilities and forces in the region. It’s true that they removed military equipment from emergency depots in Israel. There’s a war on now in Ukraine, in the heart of Europe.
The order of priorities has changed. But the Americans will not leave. I am convinced of that. They perceive a presence here as an important interest: because of Israel, because of the threat from Iran and from ISIS, because of their relations with Gulf states.”
The General Staff Strategic Division coordinated the liaison with CENTCOM, the U.S. military’s Central Command, which two years ago became the responsible body for working with the IDF. In Setter’s view, “That is a dramatic change in the level of cooperation. CENTCOM, more than European Command with which we worked previously, is a natural partner, both because of the geographical division and because the Middle East is at the center of their mission. The joint air defense exercise we conducted with them recently was the most extensive ever.”
The Abraham Accords, he believes, increased the potential for military cooperation with the Gulf states, including those with which Israel doesn’t yet have diplomatic relations with. “We need to approach this cautiously and gradually.
Things take time. There won’t be a regional defense pact here, or NATO. But joint coordination between the air defense systems can serve everyone. CENTCOM is critical for that. Things are moving ahead, in part because it’s an American interest.”
In recent years, Setter, as IDF representative, took part in the talks on setting the maritime border with Lebanon. Like the entire security community, he too presented a professional opinion that the agreement reached by the previous government was reasonable under the circumstances.
“The very fact that an agreement was signed with an enemy country is not trivial,” he says. “The agreement doesn’t restrain Hezbollah’s military activity, but it burrows deep under its ideology of struggle. In the end, the Lebanese state signed a binding agreement with Israel. If in the end a rig is established in the Lebanese gas field, that will be a restraining element. They need quiet at sea, so they will be able to drill with the aid of an international consortium. That is critical for Lebanon, which is facing economic collapse.”
Israel’s Annexation of the West Bank Has Already Begun | Foreign Affairs
▻https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/israels-annexation-west-bank-has-already-begun
Israel’s coalition government, the most right-wing in the country’s history, has come under fire for proposing reforms that would weaken the judiciary and dismantle checks and balances. They provoked some of the biggest protests ever seen in Israel and were eventually put on hold after a tremendous international and domestic backlash. But another move by the government—a bureaucratic change that has hardly drawn any attention—is just as significant.
[…]
The transfer of authority is in fact the culmination of decades of policies that have guaranteed Israel’s hold on the Palestinian territories. But the government has now crossed a threshold that represents a momentous—and likely cataclysmic—transformation in Israel’s position with respect to international law. Israel now has no need to formally declare the annexation of the West Bank. The deed is done.
Israel Shelves Plans for Controversial Construction That Would Effectively Cut West Bank in Two - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-09/ty-article/.premium/israel-shelves-plans-for-controversial-construction-that-would-cut-west-bank-in-two/00000188-a1c4-d3a7-adcf-b1cfa3fa0000
Israel is shelving controversial plans for a new housing project in Area E-1 of the occupied West Bank. The plan drew international criticism since construction in this area would sever the territorial link between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank, making it almost impossible to establish a contiguous Palestinian state in the future.
Pat Robertson, televangelist who mixed politics and religion, dies at 93
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/06/08/televangelist-pat-robertson-dies
Rev. Robertson supported Israel, but in his 1991 book “The New World Order,” he repeated long-discredited notions that a cabal of Jews and Freemasons secretly controlled much of American life.
Televangelist Pat Robertson Wants to Know Why Jews ’Are So Rich’
▻https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2014-04-01/ty-article/why-are-jews-so-rich/0000017f-e1d3-d7b2-a77f-e3d7fe1b0000
On his TV show “The 700 Club,” aired on Monday, Robertson posed the question to Rabbi Daniel Lapin, a conservative leader. “What is it about Jewish people that make them prosper financially?”
According to a report in Salon, Lapin explained that Jewish people don’t spend their weekends mowing lawns or fixing their cars because they prefer to pay others to do it for them. Robertson reportedly said that Jews were polishing diamonds on their weekends instead of doing handiwork.
et ainsi, en toute logique, l’AIPAC pleure la mort de son « great friend of Israel » qui considérait que les juifs et les francs-maçons contrôlent secrètement les États-Unis :
▻https://twitter.com/AIPAC/status/1666930350822510594
AIPAC mourns the passing of Pat Robertson, who was a great friend of Israel and a pioneer in the modern Christian Zionist movement.
Israeli Arms Maker Sent Equipment to Myanmar, Despite U.S. Embargo - National Security & Cyber - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2023-06-08/ty-article/.premium/despite-u-s-embargo-israeli-arms-maker-sent-equipment-to-myanmar/00000188-9a17-deaa-ab9d-9eb71c9b0000
An Israeli arms producer has provided Myanmar with equipment to manufacture arms despite the genocide being conducted against the Rohingya people in the country and the arms embargo imposed by the United States and European Union on Myanmar.
Weapons, Training and Cash: Israel Bribed Liberian Officials for Years, Cables Reveal - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-04-28/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/weapons-training-and-cash-israel-bribed-liberian-officials-for-years-cables-reveal/00000187-c368-d554-a5b7-df6c62ae0000
Official documents show that Israel systematically bribed top officials of the murderous dictatorship in Liberia in order to obtain their diplomatic support
“Honor to the State of Israel!” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted, referring to the warm welcome he received in Liberia on July 4, 2017. He and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, smiled and shook hands warmly. Below the surface, though, tensions simmered. Indeed, the event is comparable to Foreign Minister Shimon Peres’ meeting in 2002 with South African President Nelson Mandela following the demise of the apartheid regime.
One Italian Man, One Palestinian, Killed In Tel Aviv
Apr 8, 2023 – – IMEMC News
▻https://imemc.org/article/one-italian-man-one-palestinian-killed-in-tel-aviv
According to Israeli sources, an Italian man was killed, and five tourists were injured in what is believed to be a ‘car-ramming and shooting attack” near a beach in Tel Aviv before the police killed the attacker, 44, from Kafr Qassem town.
The sources said the slain is Alessandro Parini , a 35-year-old Italian citizen, and added that the incident occurred at about 21:35 Friday when the attacker drove on the bike lane of “Charles Clore Park,” hitting six pedestrians.
The police named the driver as Yousef Abu Jaber, 44, a married father of five daughters from Kafr Qassem.
Israeli daily Haaretz said, “A police officer and a municipal ranger arrived at the scene, and as they noticed the attacker attempted to reach a rifle-like object that was with him, they shot at him and killed him. According to a police source, no weapon was found in Jaber’s vehicle, but rather a toy gun.”
It added that three persons suffered moderate wounds, including a man, 74 years of age, and a teenage girl, 17, and that the two other wounded persons, a 50-year-old man and a woman, 70, suffered mild injuries. Haaretz also said some of the wounded were British and Italian citizens. (...)
One Tourist Killed, Seven Wounded in Tel Aviv Terror Attack, Assailant Shot Dead
Ido EfratiJosh BreinerRan ShimoniDeiaa Haj YahiaBen Samuels
Apr 7, 2023
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-04-07/ty-article/two-people-seriously-wounded-in-suspected-shooting-attack-in-tel-aviv/00000187-5d0a-dcdb-a9af-dd2bc99a0000
The attack comes hours after two Israeli sisters were killed in a West Bank shooting attack that also left their mother critically wounded
A 35-year-old Italian tourist was killed and seven were wounded in a ramming attack at Tel Aviv’s beach promenade on Friday night, emergency services reported. The attacker was shot dead. According to police, he was identified as 44-year-old Yousef Abu Jaber from the Israeli Arab city of Kafr Qasem.
The Italian Foreign Ministry identified the 35-year-old victim as Alessandro Parini. According to Italian newspaper “La Repubblica,” Parini was a resident of Rome, and worked as a lawyer.
According to the police, at 21:35 the attacker drove southbound on the road adjacent to Tel Aviv’s beach promenade, before veering right and driving at speed on the bike lane for around 100 meters, hitting eight pedestrians and bicyclists before rolling over on the lawn of the Charles Clore Park.
At this point, a police officer and a municipal ranger arrived at the scene, and as they noticed the attacker attempted to reach a rifle-like object that was with him, they shot at him and killed him.
According to a police source, no weapon was found in Jaber’s vehicle, but rather a toy gun. Tel Aviv District Commander Ami Eshed said that Police are looking into the possibility that this was not a terror attack. The Shin Bet security service are also involved in the investigation.
Five other people who were injured in the attack, all Italian and British citizens, were evacuated to hospital. Three are in moderate condition, including a 74-year-old-man, a 39-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl. The other two victims, a man aged 50 and a woman aged 70 were lightly wounded. Two more people, a 31-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman, were lightly wounded and treated at the scene. Four of the wounded were released from hospital Friday morning.
The attacker was shot by a police officer and a civilian inspector.
The Kafr Qasem Popular Committee announced Friday that it strongly condemns the attack, sending condolences to the victim’s family and wishing a speedy recovery to the injured. “We condemn any harm to the lives of innocent people and call for tolerance from all sides. This is not the way of the residents of Kafr Qasem. The city was and remains a place for coexistence and the pursuit of peace,” the committee said.
A relative of the assailant told Haaretz that “we cannot believe he did such a thing, it’s inconceivable that Yousef, a very quiet and respectful person, would do it. We are in total shock and if we had known in advance that he’d do it then we would have prevented it. He never showed any radical signs, and he’s never had any ideological background.”
According to police, Abu Jaber was not affiliated with any terror group, but was arrested in 2017 following a fight that broke out in Kafr Qasem. Police and Shin Bet forces arrived at his family’s home in the city on Thursday night, conducted a search and interrogated some of the residents. Some of the family members were taken to the police station for further questioning.
The attacker was married and was a father of five daughters.
The Islamic Jihad said in a statement that the attack is a “natural and legitimate response to the crimes of the occupation against the Palestinian people,” adding that it happened on the one-year anniversary of the terror attack at a bar on Dizengoff street in Tel Aviv.
Magen David Adom medic Yosef Kurdi, who was first on the scene, told Haaretz that he saw an overturned car and a 17-year-old girl lying next to it, fully conscious, with bruises. Near her, he found the 35-year-old victim and pronounced him dead. According to police, he was killed by the ramming and not by shooting.
A witness who was present at the site told Haaretz that a vehicle sped up and entered a nearby gas station. “The gun shots started right after that, after which he turned rightwards and rolled over,” he said.
Ron Huldai, Mayor of Tel Aviv, told Channel 12 News that the attack “is a part of our daily life for a long time”, adding that “nothing will help. The enemy feels our weakness. I hope the Prime Minister will return to himself, and take care of what he promised to – personal safety, the economy and Iran. And that he’ll get off his crazy attempt to turn Israel into something it is not.”
Earlier on Friday, two British-Israeli sisters were killed in a West Bank shooting attack that also left their mother critically wounded. (...)
92 Flights From Israeli Base Reveal Arms Exports to Azerbaijan - National Security & Cyber - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2023-03-06/ty-article-magazine/92-flights-from-israeli-base-reveal-arms-exports-to-azerbaijan/00000185-fd3d-d96e-adef-ff3dc38e0000
In Hawara, the Palestinian Authority Was Nowhere to Be Seen - Palestinians
Amira Hass - Mar 2, 2023 9:58 pm IST - Haaretz.com
While the well-trained Palestinian Authority security forces have not found a way to protect their compatriots against settler attacks, they are always there in order to suppress them
▻https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/2023-03-02/ty-article/.premium/in-hawara-the-palestinian-authority-was-nowhere-to-be-seen/00000186-a31c-de2a-a1ee-a31f57160000
The five hours during which hundreds of Jews rampaged unhindered through Hawara, attacking people and property and setting fires, encapsulated decades of encouragement of settler violence and the calculated disregard and leniency on the part of the Israeli military, police, state prosecutors, courts and successive governments. But those five hours also proved yet again how compliant the Palestinian Authority is with the artificial division of the West Bank into categories A, B and C, set by the Oslo Accords – a division that was supposed to be temporary and expire by 1999.
This is one more reason that the Palestinian public despises and detests the leadership of the Palestinian Authority. While its security forces, who underwent training in Arab and Western countries, have not found a way to protect their compatriots against settler attacks, they are always there in order to suppress them.
The 14 Million Initiative, which is attempting to revitalize the Palestine Liberation Organization and call for elections for an all-Palestinian national council and legislative assembly, had scheduled a live press conference from the Watan TV studio on Wednesday. Treating the word “election” as a nuclear threat, the PA’s security forces besieged the building housing the studio and broke into the offices in order to foil the press conference. This was not the first time this happened; security forces disrupted another of the initiative’s attempts in November.
Last week, Palestinian security forces set up roadblocks at the exits of several cities in the West Bank, in order to prevent teachers in government schools, who have been striking since February 5, from attending a central rally in Ramallah. The PA and the public school teachers’ union had signed agreements on a modest wage hike of 15 percent and on holding a free and democratic election for the union in May 2022. This followed an initiative led by several non-profit educational associations, parent groups and the Independent Commission for Human Rights (a quasi-governmental body).
An election was never held, as expected. In early February teachers learned that despite the agreement, January salaries did not include the raise upon which they had agreed; they even remained at 80 percent of regular salary levels, as before. This led to the strike, now in its fourth week, which 50,000 teachers have joined and has kept one million students at home. The leaders of the strike are keeping a low profile out of fear of arrest, as has happened with previous teachers’ protests.
Even though their children are at home, parents’ associations are supporting the teachers’ demands. The financial crisis is real: Israel continues to withhold hundreds of millions of shekels belonging to the PA every year, equivalent to the allowances the PA pays families of prisoners held by Israel, but the public does not believe that there is no money for decent teachers’ salaries.
The PA’s message is clear, then: it continues to abide by its agreements with Israel (including the security coordination) but not by its agreement with the teachers, one of the most important sectors that guarantee the common well-being.
Hawara (and the congested road passing through it) was classified more than 25 years ago as Area B, in which Palestinian policemen are prohibited from operating and from staying there while armed or in uniform. The heavily armed IDF and Border Police, though, are a constant presence – near garages and convenience stores, gas stations and falafel stands. Everyone knows who they are sent to protect. The settlements in the area are renowned for their violence: Yitzhar and its outposts, feverishly sprouting like mushrooms after rain; Itamar and its own expanding outposts; the Givat Ronen outpost, close to the settlement of Har Bracha.
The Palestinian villages of Burin, Madama, Einabus, Urif, Aqraba, Beita, Yanun and others have been living under the threat of terror posed by these interlopers since several decades. Trees chopped down, stolen olive harvests, arson, gunfire at farmers, Palestinians assaulted in their homes, village springs tapped – these are not acts of “revenge” taken after an attack on Jews. They constitute a calculated plan to take over more Palestinian land through violence and intimidation. Everything, both then and now, was and is done under the auspices of the monopoly wielded by the IDF over security.
Obviously, no Palestinian security agency has attempted to challenge this in order to protect the residents from their recidivist assailants. Instead of the Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben-Gvir government thanking the Palestinian Authority for its obedience and loyalty, it blames it for every Israeli fatality in an area under full Israeli control, namely, the entire West Bank and Israel proper. At the same time, Israel demands that the PA discipline the desperate and inept young Palestinians who have armed themselves in the West Bank. It’s no wonder that the Palestinian public loves and admires those young armed men, even though they are not capable, trained or prepared to protect it physically against settler attacks or to foil the theft of their lands.
On the night that Jews rampaged through Hawara, many of its residents who were outside the town could not return home. Through social media, Nablus residents offered them their hospitality. This was joined by the Palestinian national security apparatus, which opened its headquarters to them. The responses were barbed, a Nablus resident told Haaretz. “What are you, a charity?” furious people asked sarcastically.
Experience teaches us that IDF soldiers and Border Policemen would have shot and even killed any Palestinian who tried to deter the attackers and defend his family, neighbors or property, with a gun, club or knife. Or he may have been arrested and convicted in a military court before being sentenced to many years in prison for possessing an illegal weapon, shooting and endangering Jewish lives.
Even if Palestinian Authority policemen could have arrived quickly in Hawara to protect their countrymen from Jewish assailants, the army would have blocked them or even killed or imprisoned them, with military judges sentencing them to long prison terms without heeding the explanations of their attorneys. Any local attempt to mount a defense using weapons would have ended in bloodshed, mainly on the Palestinian side, and with an uncontrollable escalation. It is understandable, then, why such an intervention is unlikely as of yet.
But beyond declarations, condemnations and demands that the United Nations provide international protection, for years, senior Palestinian officials have refrained from rising up or calling off an agreement, or setting clear and well-defined conditions for continuing security coordination with Israel, as a response to settler violence.
Instead of sending its security forces to foil press conferences and demonstrations that call for democratization, and instead of spying on its own people, the PA could have permanently stationed these forces – unarmed and in plainclothes, but trained in riot control – in villages frequently attacked by settlers. It could have informed Israel that it is doing this because Israel’s army and police are not fulfilling their duties as dictated by international law and even the Oslo Accords. It could have sent its most senior commanders on regular tours of these villages, to participate in plowing and olive picking, herding sheep with villagers while explaining to Israeli officers that they were unavailable for coordination meetings with the IDF, the Shin Bet and the Civil Administration, since they were busy protecting their people.
The obvious conclusion is that the Palestinian security agencies and their supreme commander Mahmoud Abbas hold sacred not just the security coordination with Israel, but also the borders of the Bantustans created by the temporary-permanent divisions into areas A, B and C. That is how the narrow personal and economic interests of the ruling group, so disconnected from its people, may be maintained.
Israeli Army Attacks Left-wing Activists on Solidarity Visit to Hawara
Hagar Shezaf and Jack Khoury - Mar 3, 2023 9:56 am IST - Haaretz
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-03/ty-article/.premium/israeli-army-bans-left-wing-solidarity-visit-to-huwara-as-settlers-enter-freely/00000186-a642-de2a-a1ee-a65787ff0000
The IDF informed the left-wing groups that they would not be allowed through to the West Bank town despite the visit being coordinated with the local governing council ■ ’It is ridiculous that the army allows settlers to enter, but we, Israeli Jews and Arabs who wish to show our solidarity, are told that there is no entry’ one organization said in a statement.
The Israeli military threw stun grenades at hundreds of left-wing activists on Friday who were taking part in a solidarity visit to Hawara in the shadow of the deadly settler rampage through the town on Sunday.
Army officers had earlier met with representatives from left-wing groups Standing Together and Looking the Occupation in the Eyes to inform them that they would not be allowed through to the West Bank town of Hawara for their planned solidarity visit, despite the visit being coordinated with the town’s governing council and local residents.
We are hundreds of Israelis now on our way for a solidarity visit to #Huwara, in the Occupied West Bank, where Palestinian homes were set on fire by settlers, backed by the government.
Around 500 activists headed to Hawara despite the news. The IDF stopped the bus on the way to the northern West Bank town, declaring the area a “closed military zone,” a temporary order which legally allows the military to deny entry to civilians. According to the order, only private buses could be stopped, leading the crowd to cotninue towards Hawara by foot. (...)
U.S. Condemns Smotrich’s ’Repugnant, Disgusting’ Call for Israel to Wipe Out Palestinian Village
Mar 1, 2023 - Ben SamuelsWashington - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-01/ty-article/.premium/u-s-condemns-smotrichs-repugnant-disgusting-call-to-wipe-off-palestinian-village/00000186-9eb2-d930-a7ae-dffe27000000
WASHINGTON - The United States on Wednesday sharply condemned Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s call for the destruction of a West Bank Palestinian village on Wednesday, days after it was attacked by a mob of settlers who torched dozens of homes and reportedly killed one resident.
“The village of Hawara needs to be wiped out. I think that the State of Israel needs to do that – not, God forbid, private individuals,” Smotrich said when asked why he had “liked” a tweet by the deputy head of the Samaria Regional Council, Davidi Ben Zion, who called for Hawara to be “wiped out today.”
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said “I want to be very clear about this. These comments were irresponsible. They were repugnant. They were disgusting. And just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amounts to incitement to violence.”
“We call on Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials to publicly and clearly reject and disavow these comments, we condemn, as we have consistently terrorism and extremism, and all of its forms and we continue to urge that there’ll be equal measures of accountability for extremist actions, regardless of the background of the perpetrators, or the victims,” Price added. (...)
Les États-Unis condamnent l’appel « répugnant et dégoûtant » de Smotrich à l’anéantissement de Huwara
Le porte-parole du département d’État américain demande à Benyamin Netanyahou de désavouer « l’incitation à la violence » à l’encontre des Palestiniens formulée par son ministre
Par MEE – WASHINGTON D.C., États-Unis - Jeudi 2 mars 2023
▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/actu-et-enquetes/etats-unis-israel-palestine-condamnent-smotrich-aneantissement-huwara
Les États-Unis ont condamné mercredi les propos tenus par le ministre israélien des Finances qui a appelé à anéantir le village palestinien de Huwara, les qualifiant de « répugnants », « irresponsables » et « dégoûtants ».
Le porte-parole du département d’État américain, Ned Price, a appelé le Premier ministre israélien Benyamin Netanyahou et d’autres hauts responsables à désavouer « publiquement et clairement » les propos de Bezalel Smotrich.
« Je veux être très clair à ce sujet. Ces commentaires étaient irresponsables. Ils étaient répugnants. Ils étaient dégoûtants », a déclaré Price devant la presse mercredi.
« Et tout comme nous condamnons l’incitation palestinienne à la violence, nous condamnons ces propos provocateurs qui constituent également une incitation à la violence. » (...)
Israeli Representative Removed From African Union Summit - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-02-18/ty-article/.premium/israeli-representative-removed-from-african-union-summit/00000186-6423-dba0-a5c6-767fef620000
According to diplomatic officials, the deputy director of the African Division at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Sharon Bar-Li, had the proper authorization to participate in the summit as an observer.
Infirmé par le porte-parole de l’UA
Israël expulsé de l’Union africaine moins de deux ans après son adhésion
▻https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/diplomatie-israel-expulse-de-l-union-africaine-moins-de-deux-
L’Union africaine (UA) a annoncé dimanche 19 février que le statut d’observateur d’Israël au sein de l’organisation était suspendu, assurant par ailleurs n’avoir “pas invité de représentants israéliens” au sommet de ce week-end, après l’expulsion la veille d’une diplomate, en plein milieu de la conférence.
UAE Cancels UN Vote on Israel’s Settlements
Yaniv Kubovich Jonathan Lis and Reuters
Feb 19, 2023 8:05 pm - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-02-19/ty-article/uae-cancels-un-vote-on-israels-settlements/00000186-6ad5-df0a-abdf-7bdf59220000
The United Arab Emirates told the UN Security Council that it will not call a vote on Monday on a draft resolution demanding Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory,” according to a note seen by Reuters.
“Given the positive talks between the parties, we are now working on a draft PRST [presidential statement] which would garner consensus,” the note, send on Sunday, said. “Accordingly, there will not be a vote on the draft resolution on Monday. Much of the language of the PRST will be drawn from the draft resolution.”
The text of the resolution “reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.”
The Emirates’ announcement is a significant achievement for the Biden administration, which has exerted heavy pressure on the Palestinian Authority and Israel in recent days with the aim of reaching an understanding that would lower the flames and set forth calm on a number of fronts, for fear of escalation ahead of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
The contacts included a promise by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to turn to the United Nations, and in return Israel would freeze the plans it had announced.
Sources familiar with the details say that as part of the agreement, the Israeli military would not enter West Bank cities under Palestinian control except in cases of a so-called ticking time bomb ahead of a terror attack.
Abbas believes that the ongoing raids by the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank, which have led to the arrest of junior activists and minors, have been conducted to satisfy the new right-wing government as well as the Israeli public.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government authorized nine Jewish settler outposts in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and announced mass construction of new homes in established settlements, prompting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to say he was “deeply troubled.”
Blinken spoke with Netanyahu early on Sunday, and told him that the U.S. is against any unilateral measures that could lead to an escalation in the region.
Senior American officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, conveyed to political and security officials in Israel that the U.S. would have difficulty exercising its veto power at the UN on a number of issues. They specifically mentioned issues connected to the Palestinians, at a time when Israel is promoting unilateral measures in the West Bank.
Top Israeli officials briefed on the content of the talks say the Americans made it clear that the Israeli government’s intention to build thousands of housing units in the settlements and to legalize a number of outposts would make it difficult for the Americans to veto any resolution due to international pressure.
In December 2016 the Security Council demanded Israel stop building in the settlements. It adopted that resolution after U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration abstained from voting on it, a reversal of its practice to protect Israel from UN action.
Les États-Unis mécontents d’une résolution de l’ONU en préparation
(Nations unies) Les États-Unis et Israël ont exprimé leur mécontentement jeudi face à un projet de résolution du Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU qui réclame l’arrêt « immédiat des activités de colonisation » d’Israël dans les territoires palestiniens.
Mis à jour le 16 février | Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS, Agence France-Presse
▻https://www.lapresse.ca/international/moyen-orient/2023-02-16/condamnation-des-colonies-israeliennes/les-etats-unis-mecontents-d-une-resolution-de-l-onu-en-preparation.php
Le projet de texte vu par l’AFP, que les Émirats arabes unis ont fait circuler avant une réunion lundi du Conseil sur le conflit israélo-palestinien, « réaffirme que l’établissement par Israël de colonies dans les territoires palestiniens occupés depuis 1967, y compris Jérusalem-Est, n’a pas de validité légale et représente une violation du droit international ».
Il « condamne toutes les tentatives d’annexion, y compris les décisions et mesures d’Israël concernant les colonies » et « appelle à leur retrait immédiat ». Et réclame qu’Israël cesse « immédiatement et complètement ses activités de colonisation dans les territoires occupés, y compris Jérusalem-Est ».
Dimanche, le cabinet de sécurité israélien avait annoncé qu’il allait légaliser neuf colonies en Cisjordanie occupée, après une série d’attaques à Jérusalem-Est, dont une qui a fait trois morts vendredi.
Une décision dénoncée par Paris, Londres, Berlin, Rome, mais aussi par Washington.
Les États-Unis sont « profondément consternés » par la décision d’Israël de légaliser ces neuf colonies et de construire de nouveaux logements dans les colonies existantes, a déclaré jeudi la porte-parole de Joe Biden, Karine Jean-Pierre.
« Les États-Unis s’opposent fermement à ces mesures unilatérales, qui exacerbent les tensions et nuisent à la confiance entre les parties », a-t-elle estimé.
Mais dans le même temps, le département d’État a été clair sur le fait que les États-Unis, qui ont un droit de veto au Conseil, ne soutiennent pas cette résolution.
« Notre position est que l’introduction de la résolution est peu utile au regard du soutien nécessaire aux négociations sur la solution des deux États, tout comme nous pensons que les informations venant d’Israël [sur les neuf colonies] étaient peu utiles », a déclaré son porte-parole Vedant Patel.
« Colonies illégales »
Il n’a toutefois pas indiqué si les États-Unis étaient prêts à utiliser leur veto. « Je ne vais pas spéculer ou faire des hypothèses sur le processus », a-t-il noté.
Le Conseil de sécurité doit se réunir lundi pour discuter du conflit israélo-palestinien, mais il n’est pas certain à ce stade que le texte soit présenté au vote à cette occasion, selon des diplomates.
Le ministère israélien des Affaires étrangères a de son côté fustigé le projet de résolution.
« C’est une nouvelle tentative cynique des Palestiniens de se tourner vers les instances internationales, au lieu de s’occuper de la vague de terreur et des incitations de la part de l’Autorité palestinienne », a-t-il indiqué dans une déclaration à l’AFP.
Les Israéliens avaient dénoncé le vote en décembre par l’Assemblée générale de l’ONU d’une résolution demandant l’avis de la Cour internationale de justice sur l’occupation israélienne de territoires palestiniens, prenant des mesures de représailles contre l’Autorité palestinienne.
Dans une lettre envoyée mercredi au Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU, l’ambassadeur israélien à l’ONU Gilad Erdan appelait « la communauté internationale à condamner les dernières attaques terroristes contre des civils israéliens dans les termes les plus forts et sans équivoque », accusant l’Autorité palestinienne d’« applaudir » et de « soutenir » ces « crimes odieux ».
En décembre 2016, pour la première fois depuis 1979, le Conseil de sécurité avait demandé à Israël de cesser la colonisation dans les territoires palestiniens, dans une résolution permise par la décision des États-Unis de ne pas utiliser leur droit de veto.
Les États-Unis s’étaient abstenus lors de ce vote à quelques semaines de la passation de pouvoir entre Barack Obama et Donald Trump, alors qu’ils avaient toujours soutenu Israël jusqu’alors sur ce dossier sensible.
Le secrétaire général de l’ONU Antonio Guterres est lui « profondément préoccupé » par l’annonce israélienne de dimanche, avait indiqué son porte-parole Stéphane Dujarric lundi, répétant que « toutes les colonies sont illégales au regard du droit international et un obstacle important à la paix ».
Oui mais quels territoires palestiniens ? Ceux de 1967 ? Ça serait dur, mais juste.
What Killed the Mummified Swiss Woman ? Maybe Something We’ve Never Seen Before - Archaeology - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2023-02-07/ty-article/what-killed-the-mummified-swiss-woman-maybe-something-weve-never-seen-before/00000186-2c41-df2e-a59f-ee5b7b280000
(extrait) J’ai sélectionné une partie sur l’infection mycobactérienne du cerveau. Je conseille toutefois la lecture complète car l’essentiel du texte est au sujet du traitement de la syphillis (et des conséquences du mercure sur le corps humain) au cours des siècles.
Anna Catharina Bischoff died at the age of 68 in 1787, and was buried beneath the floor of Basel’s Barfüsser Church, right in front of where the choir stands. But what really killed her? Was this distinguished member of Swiss high society, judging by her final resting place, really done in by syphilis, as scientists have suggested?
This cause of death has been assumed based on damage to her bones and the high concentration of mercury discovered in multiple organs; bone lesions and mercury treatments are diagnostic hallmarks of syphilitic infection in archaeology. Yet it seems that this isn’t what killed her, Mohamed Sarhan of the Eurac Research Institute for Mummy Studies and colleagues reported in BMC Biology on Wednesday.
The team reports that reanalysis of her remains, now stored at the Basel Natural History Museum, found no evidence of syphilis bacteria while screening for pathogens. What they did find, though, was infection in her brain by a bacterium previously unknown to science, which had no business being there. It belongs to the greater family of non-tubercular mycobacteria, and how she was infected is a mystery, the team explains.
(...)
She was identified, among other means, by a vast genealogic analysis effort that produced a 15-generation female family tree. This also revealed that she is Boris Johnson’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother.
(...)
In short, the team concludes that they cannot categorically conclude what killed Anna Catharina Bischoff or Byschoff, but it doesn’t seem to have been syphilis, which may be a relief to her descendants worldwide.
More importantly, their results indicate that nontuberculous mycobacterium normally happy in soil and water may be an understudied cause of diseases that, even now, doctors often fail to recognize. Their paper also provides proof-of-concept for the discovery of completely unknown ancient pathogens using de novo metagenomic assembly. And lastly, it indicates that even when finding an ancient body with all the hallmarks of a deadly venereal disease, one shouldn’t leap to bawdy conclusions.
A Zionist Protest Forgetting Their Palestinian Neighbors
Gideon Levy | Jan 22, 2023 | Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-01-22/ty-article-opinion/.premium/a-zionist-protest-forgetting-their-palestinian-neighbors/00000185-d614-da66-a1bf-ff9e27520000
Once again I did not go to Habima Square, or to Kaplan Street, to join the demonstrations. My legs did not carry me there and my heart kept me from taking part in a protest that is largely justified, but which is not my protest.
A demonstration covered in a sea of blue-and-white flags, as if to prove itself and to protect its participants, while the flags of the other people that live in this land are prohibited or gathered into a narrow ghetto on a mound of dirt at the edge of the square, as in the previous demonstration, cannot be my demonstration. An all-Jewish, one-nation demonstration in a clearly binational state cannot be a demonstration for anyone who seeks equality or justice, which are among the key words of this protest but remain hollow within it.
Hollow is the talk of “freedom, equality and quality government” by the organizers of one demonstration in Tel Aviv; no less hollow is the talk of “fighting for democracy” by those of the other. There is not and will never be “freedom, equality and quality government” in an apartheid state, nor is there “fighting for democracy” when a blind eye is turned to apartheid.
Some of the Jews of this country are now outraged in the face of a concrete threat to their rights and liberty. It is good that they have been shaken into civil action, but their rights and liberty, even after they are curtailed, will remain those of the privileged, of the inherent Jewish supremacy. Those who assent to it, in speech or in silence, take the name of democracy in vain. Silence about it is silence about apartheid. Participation in these demonstrations of hypocrisy and double standards is unacceptable.
The sea of Israeli flags at these demonstrations is meant as apology in the face of the right’s questioning of the camp’s loyalty and patriotism. We are Zionists, therefore we are loyal, the demonstrators say. The Palestinians and the Israeli Arabs can wait until we finish things among us. It’s forbidden to mix issues, as if it were possible not to mix them. Once again, the center and the left fall dead before the accusations of the right, mumbling and apologizing; the purity of the flag tarnished them far more than the accusations did.
Once again, this camp is shown to exclude Palestinians and their flag no less than the right does. How can one participate in such a demonstration? There is not and cannot be a demonstration on democracy and equality, on freedom and even on quality government, in an apartheid format in an apartheid state, while ignoring apartheid’s existence.
The flag was chosen as a symbol because it is a Zionist protest, but it cannot be a Zionist demonstration for democracy and also a just demonstration. An ideology that engraves on its flag the supremacy of one people over another cannot preach justice before it changes the basis of its ideology. The Star of David is sinking, as the cover illustration of Friday’s Hebrew Haaretz Magazine demonstrated so wrenchingly, but its sinking is inevitable as long as Israel’s flag is the flag of one of the two nations with a claim to it.
Palestinian blood has been spilled like water in recent days. Not a day goes by without innocents being killed: a gym teacher who tried to save an injured person in his yard; two fathers, in two different places, who tried to protect their sons, and a 14-year-old son of refugees – all in one week. How can a protest ignore this, as if it weren’t happening, as if the blood were water and the water were blessed rain, as if it has nothing to do with the face of the regime?
Can you imagine if Jews were attacked every day or two? Would the protest have ignored them? The occupation is farther than ever from ending; it has become an annoying fly that needs to be silenced. Anyone who mentions it is a troublemaker who must be kept away; even the left doesn’t want to hear about it anymore.
“Stop the coup d’etat,” call the announcements, with pathos that seems to have been taken from the French Revolution. But there is no revolution in an apartheid state, if it continues to be an apartheid state. Even if all the demands of the protesters are realized, the Supreme Court carried aloft, the attorney general exalted and the executive branch returned to its rightful stature, Israel will remain an apartheid state. So what is the point of this protest? To enable us to revel once more in being “the only democracy in the Middle East.”
Myanmar Acquired Spyware From Israeli Cyber-intelligence Firm Cognyte, New Docs Reveal - National Security & Cyber
Oded Yaron – Jan 15, 2023 - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2023-01-15/ty-article/.premium/myanmar-acquired-spyware-from-israels-cognyte-new-docs-reveal/00000185-b415-d2c1-afe7-fc37abf40000
Israeli company Cognyte, which is traded on the Nasdaq, won a tender by a Myanmar state-owned company to provide an advanced cyber-intelligence system to be installed at the heart of the country’s telecommunications network – in order to monitor and eavesdrop on users, documents obtained by the NGO Justice For Myanmar reveal.
Although the U.S. and the EU have imposed an arms embargo on Myanmar, Israel initially refused to stop selling weapons to the military junta that now openly controls the country. Exports and contacts with the regime continued even as Myanmar pursued genocidal policies towards its Rohingya minority in the years 2016-2017. Only following extensive media coverage and public pressure did Israel halt exports at the start of 2018.
The documents reveal plans by Myanmar’s regime to install “lawful interception” tools on the networks of all the country’s telecommunications providers. Such systems are used in many countries to provide police and enforcement agencies with tools to track citizens. They monitor network activity, doing everything from locating mobile devices to eavesdropping on conversation, hacking into devices, and extracting text and encrypted messages.
The documents show that Cognyte won a tender in December 2020 to supply a system to Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications, a state-owned company controlled by the country’s Communications Ministry. The contract was awarded about a month before the junta seized power in a coup.
Israeli forces kill Palestinian, 45, near Ramallah
▻https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/132797
RAMALLAH, Sunday, January 15, 2023 (WAFA) – A Palestinian was Sunday killed after he was shot by Israeli forces near the village of Silwad, east of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, according to the Ministry of Health.
Ahmad Kahla, 45, was shot by Israeli soldiers at the western entrance of the town. He was taken to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, where he succumbs to his serious wounds.
According to witnesses, Israeli forces shot the man after they verbally clashes with him and forced him out of his vehicle before shooting him at point-blank.
With the killing of Kahla, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces has risen to 13 since the beginning of 2023, including three children.
K.T.
Israeli Soldiers Kill A Palestinian Near Ramallah
Jan 15, 2023
▻https://imemc.org/article/israeli-soldiers-kill-a-palestinian-near-ramallah-13
On Sunday, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian man at the western entrance of Silwad town, east of Ramallah, in the central West Bank.
Eyewitnesses said the soldiers installed a sudden military roadblock at the entrance of the town before stopping and searching cars.
They added that the soldiers forced a driver, Ahmad Hasan Abdul-Jalil Kahala, 45, out of his car and started assaulting him after a verbal argument ensued.
The eyewitnesses stated that one of the soldiers assaulting the Palestinian shot him from point-blank range.
Palestinian medics rushed to the scene, but the soldiers stopped them, obstructed their efforts to provide him with life-saving first aid, and eventually allowed them to take him away.
The medics rushed Ahmad to Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, but he succumbed to his serious wounds.
“Ahmad had no vital signs when we reached him,” Aahed Smerat, one of the medics at the scene, said, “His son called for help, but when we arrived there, the soldiers stopped us and told us the man was under arrest, and later allowed us to take him away.”
The slain man’s sister, Ehman Kahala, said her brother and his son, Qussai, 18, were heading to work at a construction site when the soldiers stopped them at a military roadblock.
“They were assaulting my brother before an argument, and a brief scuffle broke out, and then they [the soldiers] just executed him….” She added.
His sister added that the slain man is a married father of five; two boys and three girls, and one of his daughters will graduate from high school this year. (...)
Palestinian Shot Dead Near Ramallah After Attempted Weapons Theft, IDF Says
Jan 15, 2023 | Hagar Shezaf et Jack Khoury | Haaretz
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-15/ty-article/.premium/israeli-military-palestinian-shot-dead-near-ramallah-after-attempted-stabbing/00000185-b44e-de56-a5b5-f4fee33f0000
(...) Israel military source says soldiers opened fire on the man after he attempted to snatch one of their weapons
The IDF’s initial report stated that Ahmed Kahla arrived at a military post near the town of Silwad by car and began throwing stones. After which he approached the soldiers at the post with a drawn knife.
The army later changed its version of events now claiming that the soldiers called for him to stop and used tear gas when he refused their order. After refusing to exit his vehicle, the army said that a confrontation ensued, and that he tried to steal a weapon from a soldier and was then shot.
Ziad, Ahmed’s brother, strongly rejected the IDF’s claim that Ahmed intended to harm the soldiers arguing that he was shot for no reason. According to Ziad, Ahmed worked as an electrical contractor and left the town of Ramon towards the village of Jobar where he stopped to help a car stuck near the side of the road.
“For some reason, an argument with soldiers began there,” Ziad said. “One of them threw a stun grenade at him, or something else that exploded next to him, and then an argument began between him and the soldiers that also included pushing, and the soldiers shot him to death,” Ziad added.
Ziad also said that Ahmed was a father of four, and went to work on Sunday with his 17-year-old son. Despite the army’s claim of an attempt to harm the soldiers, Ziad said Ahmed’s son was released from detention the same day. “Whoever goes to carry out an attack, doesn’t do it with their son,” Ziad said. “If we are not believed, it is a fact his son was released soon after. It is easy to accuse a Palestinian of being a terrorist and then shoot him in cold blood.” (...)
Israeli Troops Killed a Palestinian. The IDF Claimed He Tried to Grab a Gun, but Showed No Proof
Gideon Levy and Alex Levac - Jan 21, 2023 - Haaretz
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/twilight-zone/2023-01-21/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/idf-troops-killed-a-palestinian-army-claimed-he-tried-to-grab-a-gun-but-showed-no-proof/00000185-d122-d3a8-a3cf-d732ba6a0000
Driving to work with his son, Ahmed Kahla was stopped at an army checkpoint, where he was shot dead. The army claimed he tried to grab a soldier’s weapon. His son insists that he was slain for no reason.
The following report appeared this past Monday in Yedioth Ahronoth: “IDF fighters yesterday morning shot to death a Palestinian armed with a knife who tried to snatch a weapon from one of the members of the force… The terrorist, who was shot to death… , [was a] resident of the village of Rammun.”
Yet another terrorist attack scuttled by the intrepid “fighters of the checkpoints.”
The IDF, which first reported that the man threw stones at the soldiers and approached them with a knife, hurried to revise its own groundless account, dropping allegations of stone throwing and possession of a knife at the scene, and presented a new version: about an attempt to grab a weapon. For that, no evidence is needed, not a knife and not a stone, and it certainly justifies shooting to kill.
The fact that the man, a construction worker from a tranquil and affluent village in the West Bank, whom IDF soldiers killed with two shots to the neck, was on his way to work, as every morning, with his eldest son; and that, according to eyewitnesses, he was in the front of the line of cars at a checkpoint when the troops deployed there brought the traffic to a complete standstill, at a time of the morning when everyone is in a hurry to get to work – none of that prevented the immediate effort to justify a needless and ostensibly criminal killing, a few meters from the man’s son.
A photograph of the body on the road, clothes full of blood that also trickled down the slope, a plastic tube stuffed into the mouth and neck, which was bandaged in a desperate and hopeless attempt to staunch the bleeding, is shocking. Equally shocking is the testimony of the family, not least that of the teenage son who accompanied his father on the drive to his death, and insists that he did nothing wrong. Indeed, his account sounds far more credible than that of the army and its mouthpiece.
We visited Rammun on Monday, the day after Ahmed Kahla was killed, and then buried in the village’s soil. Rammun is a relatively small, well-to-do community in the Ramallah Governate – a neighbor of the even more affluent Christian village of Taibeh – with a population of 3,500 and dozens of empty mansions. Some 10,000 Rammun natives live in the United States, about 4,000 in California, 3,000 in Michigan and the rest scattered across the country.
The settlement of Rimonim is on the other side of the road. We are told that during the past few days, Nahi, one of the settlers whom villagers know well, has been preventing their herds of sheep from grazing on their land there. He claims the land belongs to him and chases them off. The patriarch of the extended Kahla family, Abu Hani, who died at a ripe old age three years ago, served as Rimonim’s maintenance man for some 20 years. He was also the last resident of Rammun to work in the settlement.
The women of Rammun have streamed into the home of the bereaved family; the car the deceased had driven is now parked out in front. For their part, the village’s men have gathered in a diwan, near the local mosque. Everyone is in mourning in this special room, when we arrive. Those paying their condolences are offered the usual dates and bitter coffee. Affixed to the walls of the diwan are lists of names of villagers who have been killed since the start of the occupation and the date on which they fell. Until this past week, they numbered eight residents, the first of them in 1967 and the last in 2014. Kahla’s name has yet to be added; for now his photo is hanging on the wall.
Kahla, who was 45, was married to Zahaya, 43. They have four children: two sons – Qusay, 18, and Hassan, 7 – and two daughters, Doha, 17, and Jena, 13. Kahla’s younger brother, Zeid, a taxi driver on the Ramallah-Silwad line, looks stunned. Almost in a whisper he and others present relate what the family knows about the incident from eyewitnesses and mainly from Qusay, who was the one with his father when he was killed, and who has holed himself up at home in a state of shock, refusing to talk to anyone.
Ahmed and Qusay left home around 7:30 A.M. on Sunday, January 15, on the way to where they were working in the village of Deir Sudan, not far from the new Palestinian city of Rawabi. Qusay graduated high school last year and is thinking about getting a degree in computer studies. Until the start of the next academic year, he had been helping his father at work. Ahmed drove his Hyundai SUV, his son sat by his side.
Under the bridge between Silwad and Yabrud, north of Rammun, they spotted a surprise IDF checkpoint. It was shortly after 8 A.M. Qusay later told the family that his father was forced to stop and a long line of vehicles began to form behind them: The soldiers had blocked all traffic on the road, in both directions. It seemed to be a show of control, morning abuse of the sort soldiers sometimes perpetrate. There are incidents where Palestinian drivers see the troops playing around with their cellphones while people waiting in endless lines of cars seethe with anger. On that morning, too, drivers were angered and some of them started to honk and honk, the only expression of protest that’s tolerated around here. No one dared get out of their car. Qusay recalled that they couldn’t see the end of the line in either direction.
Suddenly a soldier threw a stun grenade at their car. Qusay said his father started to shout at the soldiers. In response, three of them approached the car, two on Qusay’s side, the other on the driver’s side. One of them pepper-sprayed Qusay, temporarily blinding him. The soldiers pulled him roughly out of the SUV, his eyes shut and burning, dragged him a few meters and threw him on the roadside.
His distraught father got out of the vehicle, shouting all the while. The soldiers made Qusay, who still could not see anything, lie on his stomach; they ordered him to cross his hands behind his back but did not cuff him. Suddenly he heard shots. Moments later he heard the wail of a siren – an ambulance – and shouting, apparently from other drivers in the line.
According to what eyewitnesses told the family, Ahmed leaped out the car, fearful for his son’s safety after seeing him pepper-sprayed and hauled off. At this point, a soldier approached the father and shot him twice in the neck. He collapsed to the ground, bleeding profusely. The soldiers quickly got into their jeep and sped off, kill-and-run. A Palestinian ambulance that had been summoned by drivers arrived and tended to Ahmed. Resuscitation attempts were useless; he had probably died instantly.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit this week stated in response to a query from Haaretz: “An IDF force spotted a suspicious vehicle near the village of Silwad in the territory of the Binyamin brigade. The suspects refused to stop for a security check as required, the force responded with demonstration dispersal means, and a violent confrontation erupted at the site. During the confrontation the suspect tried to grab the weapon of one of the fighters. The force responded with fire aimed at the suspect and a hit was discerned. The incident is being investigated.”
Ahmed was taken to the government hospital in Ramallah, where he was pronounced dead. Qusay was driven in a private car to the clinic in nearby Silwad, where efforts were made to calm him down. He didn’t yet know what had happened to his father, but insisted on going to the hospital in Ramallah to see him, and was taken there.
Zeid, Ahmed’s brother, who was in Ramallah at the time, saw a message in his taxi driver’s WhatsApp group not long after the shooting to the effect that soldiers had shot someone under the bridge near Silwad. Immediately afterward, the horrific image of Ahmed appeared in the social media. Zeid rushed to the hospital, as did Ahmed’s wife and their children, even little Hassan.
Qusay, then, took refuge in his home. “What do you expect?” his relatives in the diwan asked. For his part, Zeid noted that Ahmed’s dream was to see his children go to university, and he worked from morning til night to make that possible. “I don’t want them to come home like me in the evening, with dirty clothes from work,” Ahmed often said.
Three of the deceased’s brothers and a nephew flew in from the United States early this week to take part in the mourning rituals. The conversation in the diwan was joined by Ahmed’s older brother, Hani, who lives in Rammun. He’s 65 and deaf. Wearing a keffiyeh and a cloak, he expressed his feelings by means of agitated sign language. His brother translated: “Why did they kill him? Are they crazy? He wanted to talk to them, not to attack them. Why did they kill him?”
Hani relates that whenever he sees soldiers he raises his hands in the air, to be on the safe side.
Victory to Come When Russian Empire ’Ceases to Exist’ : Ukraine Parliament Quotes Nazi Collaborator - Europe - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2023-01-02/ty-article/.premium/victory-to-come-when-russia-ceases-to-exist-ukraine-parliament-quotes-nazi-collaborator/00000185-71dc-de47-afdf-f3fdb3410000
Quoting Ukrainian ultra-nationalist and antisemite Stepan Bandera, the Ukrainian parliament on Monday declared that “the complete and supreme victory of Ukrainian nationalism will be when the Russian Empire ceases to exist.”
“Currently, the struggle with the Russian Empire continues,” the Verkhovna Rada posted on its official Twitter account, stating that Ukrainian Army Chief of Staff Valerii Zaluzhnyi was “well aware” of “these instructions of Stepan Bandera.”
While Bandera spent most of World War II in a German concentration camp, his followers in the far-right Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its paramilitary wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing, killing tens of thousands of Poles and Jews.